Nothing wrong with wives replacing late husbands in Parliament – NDC PC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for Krowor Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, says she sees nothing wrong with the decision to replace dead Members of Parliament with their wives.

She said if there is nothing wrong with men succeeding their wives in parliament, then there should not be any issues with it the other way round.

Her comments come after concerns have been raised against the practice of replacing deceased lawmakers with their wives.

For instance, Professor Ransford Gyampo of the University of Ghana, in a write-up, asked political parties to halt the trend where wives of Members of Parliament who die are made to succeed their husbands in Parliament.

He said if care is not taken, very soon, some unscrupulous people who have marital issues with their spouse, may be plotting murder as a mean of getting selected to Parliament.

The wife of the murdered MP for Mfantseman, Ophelia Hayford, has been selected by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to replace her late husband, Ekow Kwansah Hayford, who was murdered by armed robbers on Friday, October 9.

“Finally, we must be in the know that the practice of asking widows to replace their dead husbands in Parliament may be dangerous and soon undermine quality representation, particularly, if the only driving force to push a certain segment of the citizenry to Parliament, is the loss of their spouse,” Prof Gyampo said in statement.

But speaking in an interview with Berla Mundi on TV3‘s New Day on Monday, October 26, Madam Agnes Lartey said: “It is not about it being a good thing or a bad thing to do.

“What I would have asked society to do is that the way we are looking at it now, would it have been the same perspective or would we have looked at it with the same lenses if it had been the men inheriting the positions of their wives. That is the question I would like to ask society.

“I know it is a period of mourning and women go through a lot of challenges and so I don’t see anything wrong with it once the family agrees.”